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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Plain talk
By Mursi Saad El-Din
Who comprises the audience for the arts? It is a question that is being asked with ever greater urgency in Britain, engendering heated debate which I have been following closely, not least because the arguments on both sides seem particularly relevant to Egypt.
Last week, The Independent published a special report, in conjunction with the Arts Council, on what is being done to encourage new audiences, in which Britain's Minister of Culture Chris Smith explained his government's strategy to encourage greater inclusion while Gerry Robinson, chairman of the Arts Council, argued that access, excellence and education represent the greatest challenges to those involved in the arts.
The arts, in all their forms, are too important to be the sole preserve of those who already know how to gain access to them, insists Mr Smith. They are for the many and not the few. And in order to widen access, Mr Smith's department has initiated the New Audiences Scheme, providing grants to pilot projects targeting new audiences.
Of course, recruiting new audiences is not simply a question of lowering ticket prices. The New Audience Scheme takes a lateral look at how to achieve its aim; for some a decision on whether or not to go and see the latest play may be dictated more by the time of the last bus home than by the price of the theatre ticket. The project, therefore, attempts to address as wide a range of possible considerations as is practical.
One criticism repeatedly voiced against cultural policy has been the inadequacy of education vis-à-vis the arts. Mr Smith responds by citing a number of initiatives, launched over the past 18 months in conjunction with the relevant education authorities and with the support of the secretary of state for education. He is also very keen to point to the setting up of the National Advisory Committee for Creative and Cultural Education, established last year. The final report and recommendations of the Committee are to be published shortly, and should make for interesting reading.
I like the final sentence of Mr Smith's article and would like to quote it here: "I look forward to the time when enjoyment of the arts becomes part of everyone's experience, no matter where they live and whatever their background."
For his part, Gerry Robinson sets out to explain the role of the Arts Council in the on-going debate. The Arts Council's aim, asserts its chairman, is to be an effective and passionate advocate for the arts, which includes both practitioners, the artists, and their intended audience, the public. Wherever art is experienced, he argues, be it in an opera house or a village hall, its success invariably depends on the challenging dynamic that exists between the arts and its public.
And there we have it: a reiteration of the importance of the public, i.e. the audience. It is something we have all come to realise -- without an audience art flounders, stumbling in the dark. Audiences are the oxygen on which the arts and artists thrive. A play is not properly a play until an audience has seen it; a book with no readers can only ever be of limited value. A work of art or craft needs to be seen and responded to. Audiences are the crucial and creative part of the artistic process.
This is a revealing and useful article and might profitably be translated into Arabic in its entirety. The argument, debate, discussions, not to mention the proposals that have evolved out of them, are very enlightening. To quote the summation of Gerry Robinson's article: "Moving towards a new millennium, the Arts Council will take a lead in broadening the social base of the arts' public. We are committed to stimulate excellence in all we do, and to ensure that the best art is genuinely available for all to appreciate and engage with."
A noble aim, and one in which I wholeheartedly believe.
